The conventional type of hosiery/shaper undergarment usually includes traditional under wear, panty hose, and girdles. These traditional undergarments compress the buttocks, offer no support on the upper thigh and they create bulges under clothing.
The conventional hosiery/shaper undergarment includes a pair of legs knit solely of stretchable yarn and providing sufficient stretchability to fit a range of leg sizes while providing a relatively small amount of compressive force against the underlying legs of the wearer. They compress the buttocks and provide no support on the upper thigh and area around the waist love handle. These hosiery undergarments do not have a control top that extends high enough to provide support to the upper torso bulge (the bulge can be really seen from the upper back area under the armpits). Some types of hosiery undergarments, the so-called “panty girdle” type, include a panty girdle formed of a heavy elastic fabric with the upper ends of hosiery legs being sewn to the leg openings in the panty girdle. This type of panty girdle applies a great amount of compressive force against the underlying portion of the body of the wearer while the portions of the stockings immediately adjacent to the leg openings apply very little, if any, compressive force against the upper thigh portions of the legs of the wearer. This immediate transition from high compressive force by the panty girdle to little or no compressive force by the adjacent hosiery leg causes an abrupt outward bulging of the portions of the upper thighs below the leg openings of the panty girdle portion and these bulge lines are visible when the panty hose is worn beneath tight-fitting slacks or skirts.
This type of hosiery undergarment also compresses the buttocks in a way as to not allow a round naturally shaped buttocks to emerge. This type of hosiery undergarment also does not provide an open toe along with an open crotch (open gusset), buttocks shaping and high waist control top for a full body shaping experience.
These types of undergarments do not provide the user with an improved appearance under clothing and can be uncomfortable. They do not allow the buttocks to form a more round improved appearance that actually creates volume in the rear using your own natural shape. By using the same girdle type material on the buttocks it does not allow the fabric to go between the buttocks like a g-string region to give a more natural curvy appearance, instead the buttocks is compressed by the same material used throughout the undergarment. Furthermore, they do not hold in bulges and cellulite on the most troubled areas of some users. These areas, known as “saddlebags”, are below the buttocks on the back and sides of the thighs just below the hips. Although girdles cover these areas, they normally are made of relatively thick material and tend to compress the buttocks rather than mold it pushing those bulge areas upward and outward to form a more curvy buttocks. Instead they create bulges in clothing about the user's thigh. Also, the thick fabric usually makes the user look heavier rather than thinner in slim fitting clothing. These types of garments also do not provide a crotch opening (open gusset) so that the user can easily use the bathroom without having to take the garment off which can be time consuming and uncomfortable. These types of undergarments stop just below the knee or extend to the ankle which make it visible if the wearer were to wear short skirt or shorts. Some of these undergarments have a stocking that does extend down to the foot but do not provide an open toe so that the wearer can wear open toe shoes with out being visible.
Often the control top, does not extend high enough on the waist to control the bulges which may be more visible from the back view. These control tops often fall down since they do not have straps that can be attached to a bra and or silicone on the waistband to prevent it from falling. Also, the waist and leg portions have elastic bands at their points of termination that do not solve the problem of bulges that occur from immediate high compressive force to little or no compression.
Hosiery undergarments that currently exist in the market place are designed to give a toned look to legs smoothing the site of cellulite and the legs overall. Originally the hosiery undergarments only extending to the waist giving no support to the upper thigh region, waist and buttocks. A need exists for an undergarment that does it all. The traditional hosiery undergarments just focus on the toning smoothing look of the legs but fail to shape the body.
Although undergarments are known that are designed to provide support to waist and leg portions of the body, U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,765 of Blakely, is mostly concerned with compressing everything in. This girdle type garment extends to just below the knee and compresses everything in including the buttocks deforming it. This undergarment does not solve the problem of shaping the buttocks to give a “JLO®” curvy shape. Instead it compresses the buttocks giving the wearer a less curvy shape. The control top also does not extend high enough to control back bulge on the area just under the breasts of a women which can be seen from the back. This control top does not provide extra compression on the side mid portion of the waist giving the wearer more support for a more “hour glass” look. The control top does not solve the problem of preventing the control top from sliding down when worn. This garment also does not extend to the feet of the wearer giving the legs a toned smoothed look which can be worn with shorts and skirts. This garment cannot be worn with shorts or skirts due to the fact that the garment would be seen stopping just above the knee and it is not designed to give the legs a toned smooth look all the way to the foot. On this garment a crotch gusset can be seen but it is not an open crotch double gusset which does not solve the problem of convenience. When the need to use the rest room occurs, the entire undergarment must be removed and then put back on, which can be time consuming and a very uncomfortable hassle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,607 of Tino discloses a traditional panty hose with reinforced heel and toe. This garment does not solve the problem of tummy bulge with a high waist control top nor does it solve the problem of too much buttocks compression. This garment does extend to the feet, however it does not provide an open toe so that a wearer can utilize it with open toe shoes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,537 of Ewing discloses a multisectional hosiery garment that has detachable feet and leg sections. This design is intended to prevent the entire pantyhose from being ruined if a “run” occurs in a portion of the garment. The design is also intended to accommodate several different fashion purposes. The different sections are attached with elastic bands, which have disadvantages. A garment having this design would not provide the user with a slimmer or smoother appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,732 of Duran discloses a traditional panty hose with interconnected portions so as to define a pair of panty hose. This garment does not solve the problem of tummy bulge with a high waist control top nor does it solve the problem of too much buttocks compression. This garment does not increase volume in the buttocks. The side bands extend to the stomach area which creates more bulge in the abdomen area which can be seen through clothing.
United States Pub No. 2004/0006811 A1 of McKenzie discloses a panty hose undergarment that includes a waistband portion, a control top portion and leg portions knitted to the control top portion. This garment of McKenzie '811 has in one embodiment elastic shirring sewn down the center back and sewn down the seam to the crotch panel while being stretched. This creates a problem of having an uncomfortable seam being pulled in between the buttocks like a what is colloquially known as a “wedge”.
The McKenzie '811 garment embodiment with a shirring seam also provides a control top portion with a heavy support knit starting under the buttocks, on the sides, in between the buttock cheeks, and up the waistband; and light support knit on the buttock peak areas; and medium support knit on the remaining area of the control top. The denser knit portion 307 shown in FIG. 9 of McKenzie has support up the side of body and ends in the back, as shown on drawing FIG. 9. This does not solve the problem of an undesirable stomach bulge. The control top 301 of McKenzie ends at the lower waist, which could allow a stomach bulge to spill over. This garment of McKenzie '811 also does not solve the problem of a wide over lapping open gusset. It provides a small oval gusset which would make it very uncomfortable to use the restroom.
The stretchable knit sections 108, 208, 308 and 408 in McKenzie '811 provide a smaller buttocks opening (McKenzie refers to the region being the “peaks of the buttocks”) which could deforms the buttocks to an unnatural smaller cone shape rather than a round voluptuous shape of the full area of all of the buttocks.